T-Mobile does it again releasing a spectacular third-quarter report that blows away AT&T and Verizon
T-Mobile released its third-quarter earnings report today and the carrier had 865,000 postpaid phone net customer additions which not only led the industry, it also was the highest number reported for a third quarter in more than a decade. Analysts expected the carrier to report 732,900 net customer additions in this category. Postpaid phone churn, or the percentage of customers discontinuing their service, was .86%, a record low for the third quarter.
T-Mobile also led the industry with 315,000 postpaid net account additions and 1.6 million postpaid net customer additions during the quarter. Additionally, T-Mobile lead the industry with 415,000 net customer additions to high-speed internet service. All of this industry-leading performance resulted in the carrier reporting $16.7 billion in service revenue which was up 5% year-over-year topping the...you got it, industry. Overall revenue just beat out estimates at $20.16 billion, up 4.7% from last year's Q3.
T-Mobile was the only one of the big three U.S. carriers to top analyst's revenue estimates. AT&T and Verizon could not brag about that achievement.
"Delivering another quarter of industry-leading results, including our best Q3 postpaid phone net adds in a decade and record low Q3 churn, translated into outsized financial results and empowered us to raise our 2024 guidance yet again. Results like these prove that our powerful combination of best-in-class
network, unmatched value and innovative experiences for customers is a winning formula and will enable us to keep pace with our ambitious multi-year plan for the future. It's an exciting time at T-Mobile as we have so much runway in front of us for profitable, industry-leading growth into the next era of Un-carrier."-Mike Sievert, CEO, T-Mobile
network, unmatched value and innovative experiences for customers is a winning formula and will enable us to keep pace with our ambitious multi-year plan for the future. It's an exciting time at T-Mobile as we have so much runway in front of us for profitable, industry-leading growth into the next era of Un-carrier."-Mike Sievert, CEO, T-Mobile
T-Mobile reported net income of $3.1 billion which was a leading 43% increase over last year's third quarter. Also topping its rivals with 43% annual growth was the carrier's diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.61. Diluted EPS assumes that all convertible notes and debt sold by T-Mobile have been converted into T-Mobile shares.
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. | Image credit-T-Mobile
T-Mobile stockholders will be happy to know that they received $1.4 billion from T-Mobile during the quarter in the form of $644 million in stock repurchases, a cash dividend of $758 million, and gave back an additional $891 million in repurchases during Q4 up to October 18th. T-Mobile says that it won "best 5G availability in the world." It also is the only U.S. wireless operator to earn a 5G Global Winner award for this category from Opensignal.
T-Mobile's head of marketing, Mike Katz said, "I’d say it’s been a good cycle. For us it’s been slightly up. Our business loves these moments when customers are considering other carriers. It positions us very well in those switching moments. That’s one of the things you saw from us in Q3."
Wall Street loved the report. In regular trading T-Mobile's shares (TMUS) rose $1.94 to $220.95. After hours, another $3.04 was tacked on as the stock closed at $223.99.
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